u003cpu003eBrian Aldiss, who died in 2017, was best known for his science fiction - and in particular for a short story optioned by Stanley Kubrick, which would, under the direction of Steven Spielberg, become the film u003ciu003eA.I. Artificial Intelligence.u003c/iu003eu003c/pu003e u003cpu003eAldiss's first book was published by Faber in 1955.u003c/pu003e u003cpu003eThis brief, late trilogy contains much of his lively humour, one improbable invention, and a pervasive sense of loneliness and longing. 'Sadness is just happiness in reverse,' says someone in a story within the story, 'We humans have to put up with it.'u003c/pu003e